Paris Muse in the News

Journalists interested in reporting on Paris Muse may contact us via our online contact form or by phone at (011) +33 6 73 77 33 52. Read our latest press release (May 4, 2006).

Listen to an NPR "Weekend Edition" interview with Paris Muse director Ellen McBreen

Read a story in USAToday about our tour "Cracking the Da Vinci Code at the Louvre"

"Guide to Get," Departures Magazine
May-June 2005

While teaching art history at the American University of Paris, Ellen McBreen often used the Louvre as her classroom. She noticed her students were frequently trailed by English-speaking museumgoers who listened to her lecture intently, thrilled to find a smart alternative to dreary audio guides and sightseeing groups.

“Clues in the Louvre,” The Sunday Telegraph (London)
March 2005

Paris Muse offers intimate tours with art historians….Pamela, our guide, met us at the Arc du Carrousel outside the Louvre. She had an academic’s pale skin and an instantly engaging manner….Pamela’s erudition was enthralling…away from the crush of the Grand Gallery, the Louvre was a haven of calm.

"Paris tourists seek 'Da Vinci Code' clues" CNN.com
September 2004

Like other academics, McBreen challenges some of the notions put forward by Brown -- but don't expect a sanctimonious lecture. The genial 34-year-old slips in humorous asides and encourages participants to voice their opinions, expert or not.

"We're extremely sensitive to preserving the pleasure of the book," she said, contemplating a wall of Leonardo masterpieces.

"Although our goal is to help people separate fact from fiction, we realize that simply correcting Brown's ideas by trotting out the traditional scholarship would be dull and horribly pretentious," McBreen added.

"The tour is intended to be an interactive discovery, a conversation."

"Deep into the 'Code'," Los Angeles Times
March 2004

On a rainy day in Paris last week, 50-year-old Linda Ackerman headed to the Louvre for a bit of detective work. Her checklist included the "Mona Lisa," a painting that she had seen before — but not this way, not with new eyes on the "Cracking the Da Vinci Code at the Louvre" tour by Paris Muse.

Ackerman, who works as a bank officer in Philadelphia, had been considering a trip to Paris when a friend dangled the piece de resistance — the special Louvre tour. The 2-1/2-hour tour has been offered by Paris Muse since February and has become the guide service's most popular, said director Ellen McBreen, an art historian with degrees from Harvard and New York University.

"For me, the thunderbolt came when visitors to the Louvre started asking me questions like, 'Is this the room where the curator was murdered in "The Da Vinci Code?" ' " McBreen said.

"Louvre Tour Helps Break Da Vinci Code," Detroit Free Press
March 21, 2004

Themes raised in the book -- pagan symbols in Christian art, the role of Mary Magdalene, and the theory of the "sacred feminine" -- are fairly complex ideas. McBreen takes her customers toward understanding. You might start by knowing only what you read in the book, but you'll end up wiser about art.

"Finding Your Muse," Paris Notes
May 2003

"As with all [Paris Muse] tours, my guide Ellen was waiting for me with a tour-related reading list and my ticket in hand. We whisked past the crowd into the sun-drenched gardens. From there on out, it was a neophyte art lover's dream come true. As we examined Rodin's masterful 'Gates of Hell,' I noticed a tiny, strange sculpture at the bottom right of the doors. A lithe, naked nymph was balanced precariously on the shoulder of a gaunt, bearded man. I asked Ellen about it, convinced that I'd get a vague response at best.

"'That was Rodin's signature for this piece,' Ellen explained. 'It shows the artist being visited by a female muse as a source of inspiration, but it also shows how Rodin was obsessed by sexuality....' Wow. This was nothing like the audio guide."

"The Art Whisperer," France Today
February 2003

"It was perhaps a little early in the day to be discussing the difference between naked and nude in modern art. The moment my private guide began explaining the subtleties of this distinction, with Manet's "Olympia" (1863) boldly staring right back at us, I realized immediately that this would be no ordinary museum morning at the Musée d'Orsay...

The experience proved to be both educational and entertaining, banishing the dusty ghosts of bygone art history courses...My knowledgeable instructor Ellen McBreen made the mini-course a lively, interactive conversation between the two of us, neatly folding my observations into her discussion of the Impressionists. McBreen kept me steadily focused on understanding the artists' innovations in the context of late-19th-century art, and the 90-minute tour flew by without a mid-lecture nap."

"Paris Tours Made Simple" Pick of the Week, TimeOut Paris
April 16-22, 2003

"Paris Muse takes small groups on tutorial-style visits of the capital's art scene, with itineraries stretching from the Impressionists at the Musée d'Orsay to temporary exhibitions."

"Summer School?" Wall Street Journal
June 7, 2002

"As part of a program called Paris Muse, visitors to the Louvre can hire an English-speaking art historian for a one-on-one tutorial on important works hanging in the famous French museum."

Paris In Sites Newsletter
November 2002

"I had a wonderful tour of the Matisse-Picasso exhibit at the Grand Palais with Ellen McBreen of Paris Muse...I greatly enjoyed Ellen's very professional and personalized tour. We avoided what Ellen calls the 'slow moving herds' at this hugely popular exhibit... Ellen already had my ticket so we whizzed straight to the exhibit.

"The influence of African art on both Matisse and Picasso was a revelation for me and Ellen 'walked' me through what I'd say are more complex and harder to 'understand' Picasso paintings...She really helped me understand the differences as well as the similarities that I would not have 'seen' visiting the exhibit on my own."

Click here for the complete review

"Lectures On The Hoof," France Magazine
Spring 2002

"Culture vultures can now have their own art historian to accompany them on visits round their favourite Paris attractions like the Musée Rodin..."

Click here for the complete review

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